Charming the Beast (Purgatory 3)

She jerked, but he held her fast.

“You were falling, and I caught you before you hit the floor. Your heart wasn’t beating. You weren’t breathing.”

Chloe shook her head.

“You know it’s true, baby. You just don’t want to admit it.”

She needed to get away from them. “I-I need some air.”

His hold just tightened on her. “You have nightmares every night, don’t you? But are those nightmares about your father? Or are they about you dying?”

Her eyes were filling with tears. “Stop.” She didn’t want to hear any more right then.

“You talk about fire…”

“Stop!” She could feel the flames on her skin.

“Where do you go…when you die, Chloe?”

“I don’t die!”

The door to the lab opened. Olivia stood there. Her hair had been pulled into a long braid—a familiar sight to Chloe—and Olivia’s eyes were filled with sorrow as she stared at Chloe. “I’m sorry.”

Chloe shook her head. “You don’t need to be. My father—he’s the one who set all of this in motion. He hunted you—”

“You were bitten because you were protecting me.” Olivia strode toward her. “You were trying to save me, and it cost you everything.”

It hurt to look at Olivia. Her father had done so much to cause her friend pain.

“Chloe. Please.”

She forced herself to meet Olivia’s stare.

“I did this to you.” Olivia’s lips trembled. “He killed you, and I-I didn’t even stop to think. I just wished.”

Chloe’s breath was coming faster. Her chest hurt because her heart was pounding too hard.

“I made the wish. I wished you’d be alive, and you came back. You were alive.”

She had to get out of there. They were all staring at her with pity and confusion in their gazes. Chloe rushed around Olivia and ran for the door.

But another man was there. One who’d entered with Olivia. Big, blond, and blocking her exit.

“I can’t let you go,” he said, voice soft. “None of us can.”

She looked back at Olivia. Her friend’s shoulders had sagged. “That wasn’t the only wish I made,” Olivia said.

“Stop!” Chloe didn’t want to hear any more. She didn’t want to hear that she was now some kind of undead freak. Her life was more than screwed up enough as it was. Frantic now, her gaze locked on Connor. He would help her. Connor always helped her. “Get me out of here, please.”

Connor walked toward her.

Her breath came a little easier.

But then he shook his head.

No. “Connor?”

“You died,” he said, “and that gutted me.”

She could only stare at him.

“We need to know exactly what we’re dealing with here.” He glanced over at Olivia. “So tell me what else you wished.”

Olivia’s hands clenched at her sides. “I didn’t realize how…how the wishes would work. I’d been told that they came out darker, that you never really got the exact thing that you wanted…”

Because, according to legend, the djinn had been creatures of darkness. They took wishes, twisted them, and…well, her father had said they grew stronger with every dark wish they granted.

“I thought I had to say the wishes in order for them to come true,” Olivia continued. Her words were husky. Sad. “Later, I realized…” Her words trailed away.

Eric sighed. “All right, let’s hurry this along.” He waved his hand. “She just had to think the wishes. If she thought them, bam, they came true.”

Miserably, Olivia nodded. “I wished for you to be alive, but then…I was making another wish.” She looked over at the big, blond male—the one still blocking the exit. “Shane stopped me before I could say it, but it was still in my head.” Her shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry.”

She shouldn’t ask. She shouldn’t. “What were you wishing?”

“I did wish it.” Olivia crept toward her. She took Chloe’s hand and held tight. “You are my best friend, Chloe. You were dying in front of me. No, you were dead. I didn’t think. I just wished.”

Chloe couldn’t breathe.

“I wished for you to be alive.” Olivia nervously wet her lips. “And the wish I didn’t get to voice, the one only in my mind…”

Just say it!

“I wished that you’d come back. That you’d never die.”

Chloe took a step back.

Olivia’s hold tightened on her. “I didn’t know it would mean you could be killed—that you’d die and come back in some kind of endless cycle! I didn’t know! I just wanted to help you!” Tears filled her eyes. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

“Wh-what am I?” Chloe asked. “Am I a zombie?” Like in a horror show? Was she going to go crazy and start eating brains?

“No!” That fast response came from Holly. “Your heart is beating, your brain is functioning. You’re very much alive.”

“But I can’t…die?”

“No, you die,” Connor said grimly. The faint lines on his face appeared deeper. “I saw you. You were gone.”

“I just don’t stay gone?” Her head was throbbing. Her whole body shaking. “Where do I go?”

No one spoke. Chloe’s gaze flew from one of them to another.

And her terror just got worse.

***

Chloe had been holding out on him. She wasn’t just a werewolf. She was something far, far more important.

Chloe could cheat death. Die, then come back, better than before.

Keegan kept his gaze on the nondescript building. He could see the men patrolling the building’s perimeter—acting as if they were just security guards. But security guards weren’t usually equipped with that much fire power.

He’d tracked them back to this base. With the way the men had been bleeding, it had been like child’s play. And…just in case we had lost them…I took the liberty of stacking the odds in my favor.

He doubted they’d even found the little tracking device that he’d shoved into one of Harris’s wounds.

“What now, alpha?”

He smiled. “Now we just wait for our moment to attack.” Because he had an end game of his own. Originally, many of his men had gone to Purgatory because they’d been following the orders of David Vincent. Vincent and the senator had thought their plans were so f**king perfect.